RATING 4.5 out of 5

Avatar: Fire and Ash is spectacle filmmaking at its finest that delivers the most emotional and character driven Avatar film to date which is bolstered by two outstanding performances from Zoe Saldaña and Oona Chaplin, but once again it is the technical magic of James Cameron’s filmmaking and his visual effects team that makes this latest Pandoran adventure a can’t miss cinematic event!  

Every time that James Cameron releases a new film, audiences know that it is going to be an event unlike anything else they have previously seen. But back in 2009, Cameron took audiences on an unforgettable adventure to the planet of Pandora in the science fiction epic Avatar, igniting the 3D craze in Hollywood and setting a new standard for visual effects work in cinema. It took over a decade for Cameron to return to the world of Pandora and the Na’vi, but it was more than worth the wait as Avatar: The Way of Water once again reignited audience’s appetite for an epic science fiction adventure, and three years later the story of the Sully family is continuing in Avatar: Fire and Ash. Three films in, there is no sign of fatigue with Cameron’s technical genius as he makes the impossible possible on the big screen with the outstanding visual effects work on display in every frame of the film, but the depth he finds within the characters in the third film is profound and moving, taking the series to new thematic heights that demands that this is not the last Avatar film that Cameron will make.

From the second Avatar: Fire and Ash starts; it is easy to see that Cameron originally envisioned this film and The Way of Water as a single chapter in the saga of the Sully family. Picking up in the exact moment that the previous film concluded in, the death of Neteyam looms over the entire film and gives Fire and Ash an emotional undercurrent that audiences have not experienced on Pandora before. Infused with an aching grief, rage and sense of vengeance, the realities of war ring loud and clear throughout the film’s screenplay, that thanks to the immense world building of the first two films (though the world does expand in this film with new clans and areas of Pandora), allows this film to truly dig into the individual characters and their arcs. At the same time, the dichotomy of fatherhood between Jake and Quaritch raises the stakes for the individual characters as the war between the humans and Na’vi intensifies as ideas of family, blood and love are explored across each family within the story, so that when the story reaches its climax, it delivers the most emotionally devastating and beautiful moment of the entire trilogy and the most brutal moments that Cameron has ever captured on camera since Titanic. With the addition of Mangkwan Na’vi clan led by the dangerous and unpredictable Varang, giving the franchise a deadly new villain with a murderous tendency that puts all of the main characters in grave danger, Fire and Ash has a maturity and darkness that invests the audience in the story and makes the over three hour run time fly by as it builds to that third act action spectacle that you can always count on Cameron to create. It is this mature thematic exploration in the screenplay that allows the story’s broader strokes, that while largely follows the formula of the previous two films and utilizes many of the same plot beats and will no doubt give those critics who want to be against Avatar something to complain about, to feel far less repetitive given the emotional payoff this Pandoran adventure has.

Many viewers will question what acting is on display in the Avatar films given the CGI element that visually dominates the film, but not only are the performances from the entire cast fantastic in Avatar: Fire and Ash, it features the best performances of the series to date. Last seen in her Academy Award winning performance, Zoe Saldaña is on a whole other level in the third entry in the series as Neytiri, bringing a devastating heartbreak to Neytiri’s suffering with the death of Neteyam. With her every facial expression so perfectly captured by the performance capture technology, Saldaña’s raw vulnerability screams with grief as she tries to honour her son in her traditions, clashing with Jake’s human desire for revenge, creating some charged arguments between husband and wife. It’s in these moments where both Saldaña and Sam Worthington soar in their performances as their character’s love and connection is tested unlike anything else they have faced with some painful exchanges as they each grapple with Neteyam’s death in different ways, but also have their connection strengthened by their love. Worthington and Stephen Lang are both excellent as Jake and Quaritch, playing out the intertwined story of fatherhood with a grit, bravado and tenderness that adds to the emotional undercurrent of this science fiction epic, while Sigourney Weaver continues to be excellent as Kiri as she discovers her mysterious origins and powers. Though, it is Oon Chaplin who consistently steals the film as Varang. From the second she arrives on screen, Chaplin terrifies with a deadly intensity that creates an unpredictable, violent and worthy adversary for the Sully Clan and ally to Quaritch that truly raises the stakes for this third entry in the series.